The final week of May brings us to what is on the mind of readers on this holiday weekend.

Q: “I was writing to let you know that I am curious as to why the paper isn’t being folded in half? It is a little frustrating when you have to refold it when it is already creased in the wrong spot. I hope that this is something that you will look into.”

A: I asked our production team about this. The “uneven” fold that is bothering you is actually done on purpose to accommodate our packaging/inserting machines. It is a requirement so the mechanical clips in the insert machine can grasp onto part of the paper to open it up to put advertising inserts into the paper. Without that overlapping fold we would not be able to put inserts into the paper. On the days when we have no inserts, we make the fold even.

Q: “I just want to let it be known that I loved the former crossword puzzle that used to be in the Sunday paper. It was so enjoyable to work on. I looked forward to it every Sunday. This new puzzle is much too difficult and not fun at all. I don’t even attempt it anymore.”

A: Thanks for the feedback about the difficulty of our crossword puzzles. Certainly the Sunday New York Times crossword is a tough one, from all I hear from readers. However, many of the puzzle experts really like that challenge. For others, do not forget that we have a week’s worth of easier crossword puzzles inside the Sunday Diversions section.

Q: “Everyone we know complains about the wasting of paper when they have tons of comics now. There are more comics now than when the paper was delivered daily. We don’t want a comic book.”

A: Yes, we increased the number of comics we publish (from one page to about a page and a half) when we launched MLive Media Group in February. We know comics are an important part of the paper and we wanted to give our readers more of that content so they would enjoy the paper even more. A key point I’d remind you of is that we didn’t reduce the news content to add the additional comics. We continue to bring you the vital local news and information you expect from us. And, in many cases, we’ve increased the volume of that local news.

Q: “I’ve been in Grand Rapids long enough to have met quite a number of people, but not so long that my interpersonal networks are highly meshed and redundant, if you’ll permit an IT guy his metaphor. I’ve depended on The Press for discovering if someone I knew has passed. That became especially difficult with the three-day paper and page after page of obits. And for all I know, there may have been deaths that were published online only. So I thank you for the summary listing, and I hope you’ll not get ‘itchy fingers’ and start ‘improving’ it by floating it around the paper, reducing it to agate type, and so on.”

A: I’m glad the placing of an obituary summary list on Page 2A in every paper is useful to you. The reader feedback on that has been very positive. I will fight the “itchy” tendency.

Q: “You continue to claim The Muskegon Chronicle has balance. ... The liberal slant is achieved by which articles are selected to run, the titles they’re given, which days you run them (print or online) and page placement. It’s no wonder your lack of subscribership forced your downsizing.”

A: That’s a smokescreen, sir. Actually, two main factors led to the creation of MLive Media Group: a steady decline in print advertising revenue (which traditionally accounted for 70-75 percent of our total revenue) and an explosion of technology that presented new ways to reach readers (via mobile phones, tablet apps, eReplica editions, online at MLive.com, etc.).

Readership is quite healthy and growing, given all the new ways we can share our content now. Our paid circulation across the state has declined less than we estimated it would since launch. MLive.com continues to be the No. 1 news web site in Michigan.

As to bias, we provide a liberal-conservative mix on our Opinion pages and keep our news stories as fair and objective as humanly possible. Same with the headlines and story placement.

Q: “Thank you and your team for reviving The Flint Journal. Today, I love everything about this paper, from front to back I feel I am getting insight that I don’t get from television news. I especially love the expanded coverage of the local events and of course my sports teams. Please pass on my appreciation to the great team you have assembled and the great reporting and writing they are producing.”

A: I’m glad to do so.

Q: “First off, great job on the newspaper updates. Both my husband and I were concerned we’d be out of something to read a couple mornings a week, but it turns out there’s enough to read and we just milk out one paper for a couple days. I’ll sometimes buy one at the store if I happen to see it, but overall we’re pretty happy.”

A: We have expanded the size of our home-delivered papers by being able to concentrate on fewer days each week. I’ve had people tell me that the Thursday paper feels to them like a mini-Sunday paper and that they are still reading it on Friday.